Unexpected Twists of Fate
by Juliet316 2000
Summary: Three years after a fire at WWF NY destroyed everything, an alliance with Ric Flair could bring Shane some unexpected truths about what happened. Somewhat AU
1. Prologue

**_Unexpected Twists of Fate_**

TITLE: Unexpected Twists of Fate Prologue?

AUTHOR: Juliet3:16

EMAIL: R

CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE

CATEGORY: ANGST, HORROR, DRAMA, ADULT

SPOILERS: Right around when Stephanie and Vince first had Linda committed at the end of 2000 and fired Mick Foley. After that everything is AU.

SUMMARY: Three years after a fire at WWF NY destroyed everything, an alliance with Ric Flair could bring Shane some unexpected truths about what happened.

DISCLAIMER: These are Vince McMahon's toys, not mine for the most part.

DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB. Anyone else please ask.

_Unexpected Twists of Fate._

_Prologue_

There was screaming everywhere.

A fire had broken out at WWF New York, the World Wrestling Federation's nightclub/restaurant. Shane McMahon and his wife Marissa had come to WWFNY to confront his father, Vince, and sister Stephanie, over recent actions that culminated in his mother, Linda, being briefly committed to a mental health facility. While Shane had managed to get his mother released before Vince and Stephanie managed to do any real harm to the Federation, he still wanted some answers as to why they had tried to pull the power play on Linda. When the fire broke out, all thoughts of a confrontation flew out of Shane's head. All he wanted then was to make sure his father and sister were all right.

Which is why he and Marissa were frantically searching the burning establishment for them.

Shane was about to give up and get his wife out of there when he spotted them. Stephanie was kneeling down next to their unconscious father with a concerned look on her face. A thin burning beam separated Shane from his father and younger sister.

"Shane!" Stephanie screamed, "something cough hit Dad hard. I don't know cough where Hunter is."

"Hang on!" Shane replied, "I'll get to you."

Just then the firefighters reached them, forcing Shane and Marissa out of the burning building.

"My Dad and sister are in there!" Shane protested as a firefighter continued to push him and his wife out of the remains of WWFNY.

"We'll get to them," the firefighter promised, finally getting Marissa and Shane out the door.

But they never did. Seconds after Shane and Marissa were evacuated, the side of the building where Vince and Stephanie had been collapsed in a burning heap.

Shane's screams mixed in with the images of his sister screaming for him as her and their father burned.

* * *

Shane McMahon woke up in a cold sweat screaming. The sudden movement and strangled scream awoke Marissa.

"Shane?" she asked worried over what had gotten her husband in such a state. It only took one look at her husband's haunted eyes to let her know what happened.

"Another nightmare," she said. It was not a question, but Shane nodded anyway

"I'm going to get some water and I'll be back to bed in a sec," Shane told his wife, kissing her on the forehead before he left the room.

As he went into the kitchen and got the cool water, a part of Shane wished he'd thought to get something stronger. Shane had never been much of a drinker, and that was enforced even more since his and Marissa's son was born. In fact, about the only time Shane thought about any type of liquor was when Shane had a dream about what happened less than three years ago.

_"Three years," _Shane thought bitterly.

It had been almost three years since the tragic New Year's fire at WWF NY. A majority of the roster had died, effectively putting the company out seemingly permanent business. Many bodies were not found; it was presumed that they were incinerated. Of the bodies that were found, most were burned beyond recognition. The cause of the fire was never revealed.

After that night, Shane disengaged himself almost completely. He and Marissa moved to South Carolina and started a family of their own. The only contacts with wrestling were his Mother and the Posse; Rodney being his son's Godfather. It was only in recent months that he even thought about returning to wrestling. Ric Flair had a lot to do with it.

Shane looked at the clock. He needed to get some sleep if he was going to catch his flight tomorrow. He agreed to meet Flair in California to discuss a number of issued related to his involvement in a scheme to take down WCW owner and head of the New World Order, Eric Bischoff. He would be touching down as NITRO was ending and meeting with Flair in his hotel room not too long after that. He wondered if he was doing the right thing by getting back into the mix of things. The next day was going to be interesting.

Shane didn't realize just how interesting things were going to get.

More to come. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter One: Send in the Clowns

TITLE: Unexpected Twists of Fate Chapter One?

AUTHOR: Juliet3:16

EMAIL: R

CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE

CATEGORY: ANGST, HORROR, DRAMA, ADULT

SPOILERS: Right around when Stephanie and Vince first had Linda committed at the end of 2000 and fired Mick Foley. After that everything is AN AU.

SUMMARY: Three years after a fire at WWF NY destroyed everything, an alliance with Ric Flair could bring Shane some unexpected truths about what happened.

DISCLAIMER: These are Vince McMahon's toys, not mine for the most part.

DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB. Anyone else please ask.

_Unexpected Twists of Fate._

_Chapter One_

_Send in the Clowns._

Shane McMahon checked into the hotel Flair and his group was staying at, thankful that nobody recognized him. Nobody knew about his and Flair's burgeoning alliance and they wanted to keep it that way until the time was right. Although the unlikely duo had little in common, both men had one bond between them: To take down Eric Bischoff and the nWo.

Shane opted to take the stairs to his hotel room. He'd always considered himself in shape, but he had been taking it more seriously following his Dad and sister's deaths as an outlet for letting out his anger and grief. As a result his body was leaner and a little bit more cut than before. He also let his hair go gray around the temples. He'd never look like a Goldberg or a Randy Orton, but he doubted that anybody would recognize him at first sight. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.

He entered the floor where his own hotel room was located. As he rounded a corner, he slammed into somebody's large back.

"Shit! Watch where your fucking going, will you!" Kevin Nash's irate voice bellowed through the air.

_'Great,' _Shane thought. He'd run smack - dab into the nWo contingent that was coming back from NITRO. _'So much for not being noticed.'_

"Why can't you business types be more aware of people around you?" Nash spoke up again, less livid but still annoyed.

Shane had to fight not to snicker in the bigger man's face. Well, he hadn't planned to test the look he'd had now, but it seemed to have worked. The self - imposed exile, leaner body and business suit all combined to insure that none of the nWo had recognized him at first sight. He kept his face turned away from Nash and his followers to keep them from getting a closer look at him.

"Come on, let's move it!" Nash ordered pushing down a rodeo clown. According to Flair, the nWo seemed to always have one for their own perverse amusement these days. Something to use in various ways, mostly as a punching back. The clown tripped and fell with a grunt before being hauled back to his feet again by Nash.

Shane McMahon jerked his head at the clown's grunt. _'That voice, _Shane thought, _But it's not possible!' _Memories of fire and screams and not being able to help the people he cared about filled Shane's mind as he tried to process the impossible.

He stood up and stared at the retreating backs of the nWo. They didn't bother glancing back at Shane, figuring he wasn't worth it. The stares Shane took at the nWo, and more importantly their clown was worthwhile to Shane.

The clown was stooping, and stumbled along at Nash's harsh urging and degrading commands. His features were, naturally obscured by clown make - up and hair, but Shane caught sight of the clown's eyes and it made Shane almost believe the impossible were indeed possible.

"Dad," Shane whispered into the now empty hallway.

Okay feel free to shoot my muse now. More to come soon, thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2: Privileged Information

TITLE: Unexpected Twists of Fate Chapter Two?

AUTHOR: Juliet3:16

EMAIL: R

CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE

CATEGORY: ANGST, HORROR, DRAMA, ADULT

SPOILERS: Right around when Stephanie and Vince first had Linda committed at the end of 2000 and fired Mick Foley. After that everything is AU.

SUMMARY: Three years after a fire at WWF NY destroyed everything, an alliance with Ric Flair could bring Shane some unexpected truths about what happened.

DISCLAIMER: These are Vince McMahon's toys, not mine for the most part.

DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB. Anyone else please ask.

_Unexpected Twists of Fate_

_Chapter Two_

_Privileged Information_

Ric Flair was itching to move.

He wanted nothing more than to pace the length of the living area of the hotel suite he was staying at. In fact, he had already paced that length for a good ten minutes before Arn Anderson, and Ric's son David, finally persuaded him to sit. Of course that was when Ric realized he had started pacing five minutes before Shane McMahon had been scheduled to show up.

'_Where is the hell is that kid?' _Ric wondered, followed by a concerned thought, _'I hope he didn't have a run - in with the nWo.'_

Ever since the WWF went down literally in flames, things had gotten progressively worse. Especially once Eric Bischoff bought WCW outright, and ECW closed down, essentially making Eric and his reformed nWo repressed WCW the only game left in town. Once things had boiled down to one national wrestling company, those left in the aftermath had only two options: Work for WCW under Eric's repressive regime or leave the business altogether. Many of the former WWF and ECW wrestlers chose the latter option, either out of loyalty to Paul Heyman, the memory of the WWF, prior sour dealings with Eric, or a combination of all three things.

For those who ended up working for WCW, it came down to a very simple choice: You were either with the nWo or against them. As Eric proved, bad things happened to people who were against the nWo. As a result, most either joined the nWo or for a very few, stayed neutral; either not helping those who resisted the nWo or simply went out of their way not to anger the powerful faction. Those who did go against them were very few and often had prior experiences against them.

There were a few times in the last three years where Ric contemplated retirement and giving up his fight against the nWo, particularly after a young protegee he had been training, Randy Orton, turned on him in the middle of a match. It took Arn and David to keep him going. In fact, it was David, who had been brainwashed into helping the nWo against his father several years earlier, that quitting would give Eric his ultimate prize victory. That motivated Ric to the point of reforming the Horsemen with Arn behind the scenes, his son with him, Dean Malenko back in the fold after several years and Perry Saturn and Dave Batista rounding the new Horsemen out. The night Ric announced the return of the Horsemen angered Eric to no end.

Reviving ECW or WWF to compete with WCW was one of the last options to try, but with Paul Heyman's 'suicide,' resurrecting ECW was out of the question, hence the four months of searching for Shane McMahon. Ric had been surprised to find out that Shane and Marrisa were living in South Carolina, though not so much that he was raising a family of his own. Shane reminded a lot of people of his mother in the sense of being a family - oriented individual.

When Ric finally contacted Shane, the oldest of Vince and Linda's children was understandably reluctant about what would be a daunting task in reopening the WWF. Shane finally agreed to start a tentative alliance to combat Eric and the nWo. One that both agreed, at least in the beginning, Eric couldn't know about. Shane was already five minutes overdue for their meeting that night. Ric just prayed that Shane hadn't encountered anybody from the nWo.

Ric was about to pace again, worry over Shane increasing by the second, when a knock came from the door, exactly like the signal Ric and Shane had agreed upon. Ric tried not to show the simultaneous relief and annoyance he felt.

"Stacy, can you get the door?" he asked David's fiancee Stacy Keibler.

Stacy got up from the couch she had been sitting at with David and answered the door. Shane McMahon was on the other side, his face white as a sheet.

"Shane, what happened, you look like you've seen a ghost?" Stacy asked concerned.

"I'm not sure I didn't, Ric," Shane acknowledged the older man, while sliding past the tall blonde.

"Your late McMahon," Ric said also concerned, taking note of Shane's appearance.

"Sorry, had an interesting encounter on my way here," Shane explained, going further before Ric could interrupt, "no, they didn't recognize me, and I kept them from getting more than possibly brief looks at my face. But, I, um, I think I saw my father."

"Uh, you want to run that by us again?" Stacy inquired, shocked as everybody else by Shane's bombshell.

Shane recounted his encounter with the nWo, and his suspicions about the 'rodeo clown.'

Flair paced a little, while mulling over Shane's story. It seemed too impossible to believe.

"Look, Shane, he began, "it's not that I don't want to believe you, and after that bastard helped Piper put me in that nut house a few years ago, I don't put anything past Bischoff, but Shane, the fire - "

"My father's body was never found Ric," Shane explained, knowing this was information that he'd never shared beyond his mother, his wife, and himself. "Neither was Stephanie's and some of the other wrestlers."

Flair leaned against the wall. Shane's new information, changed things greatly. There was more he had to know before he made a decision though.

"Who else?" Ric asked hoarsely, knowing the answer in his heart.

"Hunter, Austin, Rock, Undertaker, the Hardys, few others . . . Benoit," Shane finished quietly.

Flair closed his eyes tightly.

The official conclusion was that they all were incinerated by the fire. Look, Ric, maybe I was hearing things, maybe it wasn't my father. But given what Eric's done in the past, should we really overlook this either?"

Shane was right of course. If there was another avenue to expose Bischoff, then they had to take it. But if Shane was right . . .

What kind of sadism did it take to break Vince McMahon like that?

Flair wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"David, go find Perry, Dave, and Dean. Tell them to get here ASAP," Flair ordered. David and Stacy left to find the three Horsemen.

"What's the plan Ric?" Arn spoke up, having been silent and listening to everything until then.

Ric looked at Shane's expectant face. Ric had a feeling that their alliance had gotten a lot stronger and Shane's involvement a lot more personal.

"Change the game, start taking the offensive at Thunder. Beginning with taking away the nWo's entertainment," Flair said decisively as everyone sat down to strategize.


	4. Chapter 3: A Kidnapping

TITLE: Unexpected Twists of Fate Chapter Three/

TITLE: Unexpected Twists of Fate Chapter Three/?  
AUTHOR: Juliet3:16  
EMAIL: R  
CONTENT: VIOLENCE, ADULT LANGUAGE, TORTURE  
CATEGORY: ANGST, HORROR, DRAMA, ADULT  
SPOILERS: Right around when Stephanie and Vince first had Linda committed at the end of 2000 and fired Mick Foley. After that everything is AU.  
SUMMARY: Three years after a fire at WWF NY destroyed everything, an alliance with Ric Flair could bring Shane some unexpected truths about what happened.  
DISCLAIMER: These are Vince McMahon's toys, not mine for the most part.  
DISTRIBUTION: WWOMB. Anyone else please ask.

_**Unexpected Twists of Fate**_

_**Chapter Three/?**_

_**A Kidnapping**_

__Eric Bischoff sat in his office doing paperwork. It was not one of his favorite things to do, but as owner and President of WCW, it was a necessary evil. He always seemed to have some sort of paperwork to do during the shows and that night's Thunder was no exception. At the moment he was in the process of finalizing the contract of the nWo's newest hired gun, John Cena.

"Yo, Boss," Kevin Nash's voice rang out loudly in the office, "the clown's ready to go."

"Good. I plan to have lots of fun with him tonight. I even bought him a new clown head," Eric said holding up a new clown wig and mask. "Whatcha think?"

Nash gave a bellowing chuckle. "Looks good boss. People really won't have a fucking clue when he's in that!"

Eric brandished a sadistic grin.

"That's the idea," Eric crowed.

The evil chuckles of both men were broken by a knock on the door. A timid production assistant cautiously walked in.

"E – excuse me, Mr. Bischoff?"

"Yes, what is it?!" Eric snapped out, annoyed that his previous good mood could be ruined by some meek gopher.

"Somebody left this note for you," he said, handing Bischoff a folded sheet of paper tentatively, almost as an offering to an angry god. With that, Eric snatched the paper out of the aide's hand, giving the younger man a look that plainly said he had better things to do. Eric made a note to fire the hapless stagehand later as he opened the note.

And nearly dropped it when he read the note's contents. It was not so much the words as much as the meaning behind them and the handwriting of the note's author. He certainly received enough legal documents back from the man rejecting an and all bids to by the World Wrestling Federation's assets outright to know Shane McMahon's handwriting and what the meaning was behind his two word note:

I'm Back!!

Bischoff whirled on the anxious assistant.

"Who gave you this note?" Eric ground out, the dark flame in his eyes enough to make the aide even more scared witless than when he first came in.

"Uh – I – I don't know," the aide stammered out, "tall guy, kinda stocky."

"Did he look anything like this?" Bischoff asked shoving a picture of Shane McMahon he grabbed off his desk toward the poor production assistant.

"Uh, yeah," the P.A. said, "he had a little gray around the temples, but – "

Eric snatched the picture out of the guy's hands.

"Get out!" Bischoff hissed. The P. A did not have to be told twice, passing Shawn Michaels on the way out. Shawn immediately noticed the tense expression on his current boss' face.

"What's up?" Shawn asked.

Eric ignored Michaels, looking directly at Nash.

"The clown can wait. Get the guys. Everybody in that ring. Now. Evidently we haven't completely gotten rid of our McMahon problems.

The three men filed out of the office, not saying anything. Eric was so focused on finding a way to make sure Shane McMahon was out of the picture again, that he did not notice one of his men pressing a button on his cell phone.

__Nearly ten minutes later, almost every nWo member was standing in the middle of the Thunder ring. The crowd seemed to sends something was up. That this was going to be something other than the usually crowing about the beating up the participants in the Styles/Daniels Cruiserweight match that had been going on when the nWo entered the ring. The sour look on Bischoff's face only served to further the crowd's suspicion. The crowd attending could only hope that whatever was going on meant ill will for the monstrous group that night.

__Eric Bischoff was in the center of the ring as usual. He gripped the microphone so hard that the knuckles on his fake tanned hand were white. Some in the audience could have sworn they saw smoke coming out of his ears.

Apparently," Eric started only to have a rainfall of boos drown out what he planned to say. The crowd's jeers served only to inflame the sour mood Eric was feeling. He glared at the masses assembled as he waited for them to quiet down.

"Apparently," Eric started again when the crowd finally died down. "We are not free of the McMahon problem as I thought."

That brought cheers from the crowd. They seemingly knew of only one living McMahon capable of making the leader of the nWo this angry. Eric's next words confirmed it.

"Shane McMahon, if your really here as your little note said you were, then show your punk ass face!"

Minutes ticked by with no appearance from the McMahon heir. Eric decided to egg the eldest child of Vince McMahon on.

"Come on, Shane, show yourself. Unless you're a coward like your old man was."

"My father wasn't a coward," a voice rang out, "and neither am I." Shane McMahon finished speaking and appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the crowd.

"Well, then, if you're not scared then, boy, why don't you come down here and prove it!" Kevin Nash challenged.

Shane smirked. "Considering you couldn't recognize me from a 'damn business type' in a hotel hallway, I'm not sure if you'd be able to find me in a ring. Not for nothing Eric, but I do remember clearly when you originally challenged my father. What nobody knows is that my father tried to show up to accept your challenge, but you had Turner's security bar him from even entering the building."

Shane enjoyed the look of horror and realization in the big man's eyes. Eric had rage in his dark eyes.

"Well, if you don't want to come down here, then why don't you just tell me why you're here?" Eric bit out.

"I came to take back what is mine and my family's," Shane said all traces of humor gone. "Starting with the resurrection of the World Wrestling Federation."

The crowd went absolutely wild at the announcement many had long wanted to hear. Eric Bischoff wore a look of disgust at the crowd's reaction.

"I own this sport now, Boy Wonder." Eric spat in a low vicious voice, "what makes you think your Mickey Mouse attempt at trying to bring back a dead company is going to change that?"

Shane looked at his adversaries with daggers in his eyes.

"Because I'm a McMahon," he said, his own tone quiet and deadly, "and we don't try. We do; and that, is a guarantee.

By the time Shane was finished, Eric was literally shaking in anger. Kevin Nash looked very much like he wanted to charge into the crowd after the McMahon heir.

Shane turned as if to escape into the crowd, having finished what he had planned to say. Then, he back towards the ring, as if he had suddenly thought of something else. "One more thing…

"I've been watching the shows the last few weeks. Just trying to catch up on some of what I've missed since I've been gone and I've been taking note of some of your 'entertainment.' One pieces interested me in particular: A certain clown of yours. So I decided to recruit some guys to help me 'procure' it. Let's take a look."

On Thunder's big screen, the crowd and the nWo watched as the picture switched to a long, black limousine. As everyone watched, they suddenly saw David Flair and Perry Saturn carrying an unconscious body between them. A zooming of the camera angles showed it was the nWo's favorite rodeo clown. The video showed the two men placing the clown in the trunk and Stacy Keibler's hand quickly shutting the lid. Then the three Horsemen members quickly got in the vehicle and it sped off.

Kevin Nash quickly climbed out of the ring, intending to charge after Shane. He was blindsided by Batista. The big man and Dean Malenko along with several other wrestlers that Shane and Ric had recruited for this ambush suddenly coming out of the crowd and attacking the nWo. The crowd egged it on as pretty soon every member of the group was fighting an opponent outside the ringside area.

Leaving Eric Bischoff completely alone in it.

So focused on his own anger and the fights around him, he never saw Shane McMahon slide into the ring behind him. Moving quickly, Shane executed a drop-kick that caused Eric to stumble. Right into Ric Flair's fist. Ric quickly dragged a nearly unconscious Eric to one of the corners of the ring, grabbing a dented trash can and putting it across his nemesis' chest. Shane swiftly climbed the ring post opposite Eric.

The Boy Wonder flew through the air, wind at his back and forcibly planted his feet into the trash can in front of Bischoff.

Both objectives of their mission completed, the two partners in crime left the ring and escaped through the crowd. They headed back to the hotel they were staying at.

Back to where Shane McMahon simultaneously hoped and dreaded the man he thought was his father was.


End file.
